Will Wight

Will Wight was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and received his B.A in 2011 and M.F.A in 2013 in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida. He is the first of three siblings.

Will Wight began self-publishing novels in 2013 with the Traveler's Gate series, starting with the book House of Blades, which he wrote while earning his master's degree. He has stated his coursework during his degree was integral to helping him form the structure that he uses to write his books. House of Blades was so successful that Wight was able to become a full-time independent writer shortly after it was published. He later founded Hidden Gnome Publishing as an independent business to handle publishing, merchandising, and other related activities. In 2022, he funded the publication of physical books through Kickstarter.

He won the Stabby Award for Best Self-Published/Independent Novel of 2013 on Reddit's r/Fantasy for his first book House of Blades. Wight subsequently won the same award two more times in 2018 for Ghostwater, and in 2019 for Underlord. Due to his number of wins, Wight was retired from eligibility for the awards in 2020. The audiobooks for Bloodline, Reaper, Dreadgod, and Waybound narrated by Travis Baldree, appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list for the month that they were released. The audiobook of the final volume of Cradle, Waybound was the best seller on Audible the week it was released. An animatic for Cradle, covering the first two books of the series, premiered on November 1, 2025.

Wight takes inspiration from xianxia and wuxia literature, as part of the emerging Western equivalent, the progression fantasy and cultivation genres.

Wight has attended Dragon Con, and frequently livestreams on Twitch before and after book releases.